Chapter 8
First Gig
We were moving for about 10 minutes now, going south towards SeaTac. I had no idea how far we were gonna go but I was in for the ride. Watching the streetlights go by and the buildings become sparser, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of trepidation. They way they described the job, it sounded pretty simple, just keep an eye out. However, I could help but worry that something was gonna go wrong.
“Why Orion?” Lucy asked breaking the silence of the car ride.
“Why what?” he replied.
“The name. Why did you choose it?”
“It was a story I heard once. Orion a giant hunter who vowed to kill every beast in the world,” he said looking kinda embarrassed. “’Sides, sounds sophisticated, doesn’t it?”
She gave a snort in mirth. “Suuure…” she said and I could imagine her rolling her eyes.
Feeling anxious, I couldn’t help but ask.
“This job. What’s the plan?”
“Ain’t much to it. We reach the facility, you find a nice spot to keep a lookout, me and orion go inside and I do all the work to get any locks open. You stare amazed at my skills and we make our daring getaway. Any questions?”
I opened my mouth but before I could form a full word she cut me off. “That was sarcasm, don’t bother me.”
I don’t like to use the word lightly, but she was coming off as kind of a bitch.
Another ten minutes later we had gone past the fork on the 509 instead of continuing to SeaTac, we were heading to Tukwila. Tukwila was a suburb with sparse apartment buildings and loads of corporate data centers as well as small business, warehouses and factories. It seemed like the perfect place for a storage facility - tucked away enough to be discreet but not far enough to be inconvenient.
Shortly after, we reached the place. A three story building on the side of the road under the name of Si’ahl Self Storage. There were about ten parking spots in front of the building and only two were occupied by moving trucks. The building had it’s back towards a hill and seemed to be accessible only through the doors at the front. There were three of them; one led to offices, a set of double doors with a keypad led to the storage units and a smaller one to the side that seemed to be an emergency exit door. While the offices were dark, through the double doors I could see the lights on for the storage unit corridors.
“Here we are,” Lucy said while parking the car off to the side.
We got off the car and she popped open the trunk, taking out an empty duffel bag.
We moved to the storage unit doors and Lucy stepped up to the keypad. When we got closer, we saw an AR interface popping up on top of the keypad, asking for a code. Lucy seemed to be staring at it intently while me and Orion were exchanging confused looks. After about 30 seconds, the ARO flickered wildly and with a happy chirp, the interface turned green displaying the word OPEN.
“Don’t hold your applause,” she said smugly and turned to open the doors. Orion gave me a look and shrugged, turning to follow the woman in.
I shook my head and moved to scout out the parking area.
There wasn’t much to see, the area was dimly lit from the street lights and the simple layout meant that anyone going in or coming out would either have to use the double doors or trigger the fire alarm by going through the emergency door. At least anyone come in from the road would be immediately visible which made my job extremely simple.
I paced around a bit, enjoying the crisp night air. I looked around in AR, searching for any interesting icons. All I could see was a few household items like a coffee machine and a microwave, a bunch of cameras and a shit ton of locks. A few feet above the building, there was a small host in the shape of what looked like a red monopoly house token with the company logo. Since I had no hacking equipment all abilities, I chose to ignore the host, thinking it would be a waste of time.
Next, I checked for personas, the visual representation of users in the Matrix. Unless using a company issued device, most people’s personas were highly customized to suit one’s tastes. Other than Orion’s which looked like a neon figure with a mohawk holding a bow and Lucy’s which was a pink dragon with its two front arms being cybernetic, there didn’t seem to be any other Personas in the building. The one negative with looking for personas, was that much like device icons, you only had a vague sense of direction.
Meanwhile, the instincts from my stealth skill were screaming at me, telling me that standing in the open like that was a rookie mistake. Looking around, the deep shadows behind the moving trucks seemed to be a perfect hiding spot. From there I’d be able to see the road while staying hidden myself. I moved to the one furthest back and kneeling in the shadows, I focused on the opening to the road.
Wanting to be as prepared as possible, I decided to give Orion a call.
“Hey man, hows it going?” I asked.
“Still looking for the storage unit. We’ve gone through the first floor and are moving up to the second, how about you?”
“I’m keeping my eyes open but everything seems to be quiet so far.”
“Good, good. Anything happens, you let me know.”
“Sure thing,” I replied, trying to sound reassuring.
“Let’s keep each other on the line,” I said. “That way, we won’t be caught unaware.”
“Good thinking chum,” he replied.
I waited in silence, so anxious that the slightest noise would make my hand fly to the gun under the jacket. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need to use it tonight.
After a few minutes of just hearing footsteps through the line, Orion gave me an update.
“Ok, we’ve found the unit but Lucy here seems to have hit snag with the padlock.”
“Mind your own business chum,” I heard her say in the background and I dared let out a chuckle.
“What the hell was that?” I heard him say.
“Why? What happened?” I asked anxiously while at the same time hearing Lucy mumble something. They seemed to exchange a few hushed words and Orion was quick to report back.
“We’re in, but Lucy says an alert went out. Keep your eyes peeled,” he said and went silent.
Fuck, I thought. I knew something was gonna go wrong.
I thought I was anxious before but now I was properly on edge. I was laser focused on the road while on the other end of the line I could hear movement and things being shuffled around. A few minutes passed in relative silence until my attention was grabbed by movement.
A small black SUV with tinted windows quietly pulled up to the parking lot. The doors opened up and two scowling Japanese men in suits came out. They looked like they were around 40 but most important, they were holding SMGs and moving towards the building with a purpose.
I was so surprised that I almost stood there watching. What ended up breaking my reverie was a notification.
*New Journal entry added*
I opened the notification and saw the following:
Your First Gig Ensure that you and your allies complete your objective safely. Reward: 2 Karma
Immediately, my attention returned to the call.
“Orion!” I said in an urgent whisper. “Two guys with guns just arrived and are heading towards you.”
“DREK!” I heard him say. “Lucy, we have company”.
I heard her mumble an unintelligible swear.
“We still haven’t found what we’re looking for, how close are they?” Orion asked.
“They just got out of their car and are heading towards the building. They’re armed with SMGs,” I said as quiet as I could.
“Lucy, what do we do?” I heard Orion ask her.
“I need more time,” she replied.
My thoughts were racing at a thousand miles an hour. I really didn’t like what was happening but I had to do something. I had to make sure that they stayed safe while still completing the objective.
“Listen to me,” I said assertively. “You know the layout better than me but I don’t think you’ll be getting out without running into them. The way I see it, you either hide and hope they don’t find you or you take cover and once they reach you, I hit them from the back, distracting them. That way they get stuck in a crossfire.”
I heard Orion relay my words to Lucy who in turn was silent.
Meanwhile, the Yakuza toughs had reached the door, giving a quick look to each other when they saw the lock was stuck on OPEN. They exchanged a few words I couldn’t hear, readied their guns, and went in.
“They’re in,” I said urgently. “It’s now or never man. Trust me and I’ll get us out of here.” Hopefully my words would do a better job of reassuring him then they did for me.
“Do it,” he said curtly.
Before I could twitch a muscle, I got two notifications in quick succession.
*Charisma has gained 100 XP*
LEADERSHIP SKILL UNLOCKED
The wave of dysphoria and disorientation from the unlock must have cost me about 10 seconds. Reassuringly, new instincts solidified my faith in the plan.
“I’m moving after them,” I whispered on the comm. “Take good cover and when you hear my shots you give them hell, ok?”
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“Got it!” Orion replied tensely.
“What’s the unit number?” I asked.
“210. It’s one of the two last ones on the second floor,” he replied immediately.
“Got it,” I said moving to the door. I drew my Beretta, thumbing off the safety and keeping my finger off the trigger.
I moved as fast as I dared to without breaking my stealth. The yaks were moving cautiously and I was hot on their asses all the while keeping my pistol trained on them. It seemed like every second stop I took would trigger a notification. I pointedly ignored them but after a few, I felt a shiver run through me and I knew that my stealth skill had leveled up. With improved instincts, I fell into a fast-moving crouch-walk which I was sure that from a third person view would look goofy as hell.
The layout of the floor was pretty simple. I had entered through one end of a U-shaped corridor with units on each side. There was a total of 16 units per floor with a big freight elevator on one side and narrow stairs leading up on the other.
The Yaks ignored the elevator and moved towards the stairs. It made sense on their end as the elevator was probably slow moving and would make loads of noise.
Not daring to make a sound, I shot a quick message to Orion, letting him know that we’d be going up the stairs.
“We’re ready,” I heard him whisper on the comm. “Waiting on your mark.”
Due to the stairs doubling back on themselves, they almost saw me going up but I managed to duck behind a corner in time to avoid detection. I followed after them and once up on the second floor, I saw them turning the first corner.
I went after them as fast as I could and once they reached the second bend, I took cover on the corner behind them. For a hot second, I debated switching my Beretta to burst fire but since I wasn’t practice with it, I didn’t want to chance it.
I turned my aim to the Yak on the left. I wanted to go for a headshot to end things as fast as possible but I knew my pistols skill wasn’t good enough to make shot and I wasn’t much of a gambling man. Instead, with my heart pounding in my chest, I aimed center mass and pulled the trigger.
My aim was unfortunately a bit off and I watched with a sinking feeling as my bullet went clear through the man’s shoulder, staining the wall next to him with a small blood splatter. He dropped on one knee clutching his shoulder. I didn’t even manage to get a second shot off as his comrade whirled in place training his gun on me.
By sheer instinct, I ducked back behind cover narrowly avoiding the spray of fire from his SMG. With chunks of drywall and wood splinters flying all over the place, I heard the rapid sounds of his gunfire joined by the staccato shots of a higher caliber gun which in turn was followed by a short burst from the second SMG. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the gunfire died down.
With my ears ringing from the gunfire, as soon as I was reasonably sure it was safe to do so, I rounded the corner. With gun in hand I stared at the grim picture painted before me. The man closer to me was lying face down, a pool of blood forming beneath him while the one I shot was sitting down with his back against the wall with a bloodstain behind him indicating he slid down. In front of him and next to the open unit, Orion was propping up Lucy who in turn was clutching at a wound in her belly.
The Yakuza that was still breathing made to lift his arm that was still holding the SMG. Orion, with a cold expression on his face, lifted a big fuck off pistol reminiscent of a Desert Eagle and proceeded to empty the rest of his magazine on the man. The Yak twitched a bit and then he breathed his last.
While the whole ordeal must have lasted less than 10 minutes, it felt like a lifetime had gone by.
Realizing what I was seeing, I holstered my Beretta and rushed towards Orion and Lucy. On the way I made sure to pick up the two SMGs just in case. Lucy had turned pale and was breathing heavily.
“Are you guys okay?” I asked.
“Are you blind or stupid drek-for-brains?” Lucy said through gritted teeth, her words dripping venom. “Get the bag and let’s go, before more get here.”
I picked up the duffel bag which was stuffed to the brim and slung it across my shoulder leaving my hands free to hold the SMGs.
“You good to carry her Justin?”
“Yeah man,” he replied.
“Ok, I don’t think taking the stairs would be good in her condition,” I mused out loud. “You guys take the elevator and I’ll go down first, make sure the coast is clear.”
“I can walk just fine!” Lucy protested but as she made to take a step, she stumbled wincing as she did so and Orion moved to support her again. “Well maybe not…” she muttered under her breath.
Me and Orion locked eyes in mutual understanding and nodded at each other. I moved back towards the stairs while the others shuffled to the freight elevator.
I tried to move as carefully as possible, holding the guns before me. Between the heavy as rocks bag weighing me down as well as wielding two SMGs akimbo which wasn’t the greatest idea probably, I wasn’t feeling too sure of myself. With a bit of luck though, we’d be able to leave unmolested.
Inching step by step through the corridors towards the exit, I was relieved to see the parking lot no fuller than how I left it. I moved to Lucy’s Americar, fumbled for the button and finally managed to open up the trunk. I deposited the duffel bag in there and waited for Orion and Lucy.
Note a minute later they appeared, hobbling through the door.
“Where to now?” I asked.
“None of your business omae,” she replied full of bravado. “I’ll drop you off at bar and I’ll get home.”
“Lucy-” Orion started to say with a worried expression on his face but was quickly cut off.
“Shut it. I call the shots here.”
While she was trying to appear in control anyone could see she was putting up a front. The front of her shirt was slick with blood and she had a deathly pallor with her hair wet from sweat plastered to her face.
“We’re not blind you know!” I said. “If we don’t play this right you ain’t making it.”
In turn, she just grunted in response, her head hanging down.
“Justin, can you drive?” I asked.
“I’m a bit rusty but sure, yeah.”
“Good, I know just the place,” I said forwarded the address for Mr. Asano’s clinic to Orion.
“Nova,” he said having received the deets.
“I’ll stay in the back with Lucy to provide first aid,” I added.
In the meanwhile, Lucy’s breathing had gone shallow and her eyes were unfocused. I stuffed the SMGs as best I could in my Jacket pockets and proceeded to help helped Orion get her lying down in the back seat. I joined her while Orion went to the driver’s seat and started the car up. After fiddling a bit with his seat and controls, we were off.
Lucy was looking worse every second that passed and I was shitting my pants. I opened up her jacket to see that her wound was bleeding steadily. Not knowing what else to do I pulled out the Stim Patch and thinking it would be for the best, I slapped it close to her heart. Immediately her breathing got steadier but in turn the wound started bleeding faster. In the nick of time, I heard a ding and felt a familiar sensation go through me.
FIRST AID SKILL UNLOCKED
With new knowledge coursing through me, I took out my knife and proceeded to slice off a long strip out of a part of her shirt that was unbloodied. Knowing that I needed to stem the flow of blood, I started packing the wound with the fabric. When I was finished, I put my hands over her wound applying steady pressure.
Satisfied with my efforts, I turned my attention to my commlink. I navigated my contacts and proceeded to give Mr. Asano a call.
After a few rings, a bleary voice answered.
“Hello? Who is this?”
“I’m really sorry to bother you at this hour Mr. Asano,” I said anxiously. “It’s Jack Garland. We met this morning at McHugh’s?”
“Oh, hello my boy,” he said gradually waking up. “Is everything okay?”
“I really wasn’t planning to call under these circumstances but I have a friend who needs your help. She has a gunshot wound in the abdominal region,” I said, leaning on my skill.
“Okay, I’ll walk you through it. How far are you from my clinic?” he said all business.
“We’re about 25 minutes away,” I replied.
“Good,” he said. “What is her condition?”
“The bullet didn’t go through so it must still be inside. The wound is in the lower left abdomen but I managed to stem the bleeding by packing the wound with a strip of her shirt and keeping pressure. I administered a stim patch and now her breathing and pulse are steady and strong,” I said. “Can I do anything else?”
I heard a whistle of appreciation on the other end of the line. “You did admirably my boy. Just get your friend here and I will take care of the rest,” he said reassuringly.
“Thank you very much Mr. Asano,” I replied breathing a sigh of relief. “See you soon!” I said terminating the call.
“What did he say?” Orion asked.
“Not much we can do, he’ll be waiting for us at his clinic,” I replied. “You ok?”
“Yeah, not a scratch. Sorry for not saying much by the way, trying to focus on driving. Not much used to it,” he said, his voice curt.
“Sorry man,” I said. “I’ll do what I can for her and you keep your eyes on the road.”
Worried out of my mind, I kept pressure on the wound while everything around us zoomed past in a blur. It simply beggared belief how not even two days ago I had a normal and quiet life. Now, I was in a world where I was considered a thing to be used, where suffering and exploitation was the daily norm and with technology that bordered magic. Not content with all that, I somehow managed to find myself caught in two firefights all within 24 hours. Surely my choices had nothing do with it.
With the car screeching to a halt, I was shaken out of my thoughts. We seemed to have reached Downtown once more and were parked in front of a two-story building that was nestled between a dumpling place that was open and serving at this hour as well as commlink repair shop.
Orion put the car in park and moved out to help me with Lucy. He grabbed her by the shoulders while I got the legs. We made for the clinic door, trying not to jostle her. Lucy’s condition seemed to be unchanged to far. She was out of it and occasionally mumbling incoherently.
The front doors automatic sliding glass doors and had the classic symbol of a winged rod with twin snakes coiled around it in gold over a white cross. Under that symbol, in a tasteful white font “Golden Health Clinic” was written. The moment we approached; the doors slid open. The lobby lights were off but Mr. Asano was there in a lab coat, with puffy eyes and looking hastily dressed. He was standing right next to a gurney and beckoning us inside.
“Come in quickly,” he said. “Put your friend down here.”
“Thank you very much for seeing us at such short notice,” Orion said as we lowered Lucy down on the gurney.
“Do not mention it,” Mr. Asano said. “Be careful! Let her down gently.”
He slapped a weird looking rubber bracelet on her wrist and his cybereyes lit up blue for a second.
“She is stable. Lost a bit of blood but once I take care of the wound, she will be fine,” he said as he started wheeling her away.
We followed suit and heard the front doors lock behind us. We moved away from the lobby and reached a side corridor that led to an operating room.
“You are free to wait here for your friend,” he said, gesturing to the seats by the door. He gave me a weird look and said, “We will speak later but for now I will not be interrupted, and I clear?”
“Yeah, sure.” I replied.
Mr. Asano went into the operating room and I sat down while Orion was pacing around.
“Hey Jack,” he said.
“Huh?” I asked absentmindedly.
“I’m gonna go make a call, let the boss know what happened.”
“Sure man, I’ll keep watch,” I said as I watched him walk away.
The operating room must have had pretty good sound proofing as I all I could hear has the soft humming of the fluorescent lights.
This whole situation was pretty nerve wracking and coming down from multiple adrenaline rushes had left me feeling pretty raw. I also felt a fair measure of guilt as it was my plan that led to her getting shot, even though intellectually I knew that any alternative would have probably led to a worse outcome.
Besides, since this was a mob job, there was a non-zero chance that if Lucy died, me and Orion would be in a heap of trouble.
Trying to occupy my mind, I decided I take a look at all the notifications that had piled up.
*Sneaking has gained 800 XP* *Sneaking has reached rank 2* *Pistols has gained 200 XP* *Agility has gained 250 XP* *Charisma has gained 200 XP* *Body has gained 100 XP* *Leadership has gained 100 XP* *First Aid has gained 300 XP*
For completing an objective, you were awarded 2 Karma
*New Qualities unlocked*
Ooh, nice! Now that got my attention.
Before I opened up the Qualities menu, I checked out the new skills.
Leadership [CHARISMA] Rank: 1 Experience required for next rank: 900 All those motivational videos you watched have finally paid off. Leadership is the ability to direct and motivate others from a position of authority. This skill is especially helpful in situations where executing a plan is critical, the will of a teammate is shaken or when someone is asked to do something uncomfortable.
First Aid [LOGIC] Rank: 1 Experience required for next rank: 700 Be your own medical assistance! First Aid is the ability to provide emergency medical assistance similar to that of a paramedic. This skill may be used to stabilize wounds, prevent people from dying but cannot be used to perform surgery or repair damaged implants.
At that moment, Orion walked back looking more tired than ever. He sat opposite of me propping his head up with his hands and sighing deeply.
“Everything ok?” I asked.
“Boss is not that happy. Lucy’s someone important to him so he chewed me out.”
“Are we gonna be in trouble?” I asked apprehensively.
“Well, given the we got paydata and the fact if you weren’t there we’d probably both be dead now, I’d say that things will probably turn around.”
“That’s good,” I said, sighing in relief. “So what now?”
“Boss is sending someone to watch over Lucy so we can scram for now. ‘Sides I’m dead tired chummer.”
“I think I’m gonna stay,” I mused. “I feel partially responsible for her and I wouldn’t wanna disrespect Mr. Asano by letting him deal with some random thug.”
“Heh! Suit yourself chum,” he said standing up. “Well, I’ll be off. We’ll speak again tomorrow and when I get any news about our cut, I’ll let you know asap.”
“Thanks Justin. Take care,” I said waving him off.
That left me alone with my thoughts once again. But now, looking at my Qualities list, it seemed I had something pretty cool to keep me occupied.